“Write what you know” is a popular piece of advice for authors and other creators. But what happens when your audience wants something that you don’t know much about? Well, you have to tell your fans on Steam that, no, you can’t add dating to your anime-themed tactical RPG because you and your team don’t have the real-life “experience” needed to create such a system.
Troubleshooter: Abandoned Children is a tactical RPG that was released in 2020 and has remained fairly popular since then. It currently has over 8,000 positive reviews on Steam and a fairly active community. And while the game might look like a JRPG, it lacks one important feature seen in many of those games: A robust dating system. And according to the developers behind Troubleshooter, it’s unlikely to get one in a future update.
As first reported by Gamesradar on June 11, a review for Troubleshooter on Steam praised the game for being more complex than X-COM and called it a “really good game.” However, the short review did include one negative note. “Only complaint is no waifu dating system,” said the reviewer. In response to this short review, Troubleshooter developer Dandylion replied and explained why this was the case:
“Dating system…It’s a feature that a lot of people wanted, but my team members…have no experience with it, even in real life,” replied the developer, “Thanks for this review.”
Comments have been turned off for the review, but about 90 people have labeled the review and its reply as “Funny.” That’s a bit rude, but maybe they are just laughing at the silly review and not the honest answer from the developers behind the game.
While I know some might immediately laugh at the situation, I do appreciate the honesty and transparency from Korean developer Dandylion. Dating is hard, it’s maybe harder today than ever thanks to everyone being overworked, filled with anxiety, and terrified that your next minor mistake or blunder will end up on TikTok or Twitter.
So I don’t laugh at Dandylion and its single devs. Instead, I hope they find happiness in the future. Oh, and maybe a modder who has been on a few dates can help add a dating system to Troubleshooter in the future. Then everyone wins.
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